About Me

before i went into novel writing, i worked as a marketing and public relations executive. spent about ten years in the field beginning as a public relations secretary with a production and PR company called Maxi-Media International (1995-96). i left after a year and a half to be a freelance writer, working with a friend who’s also a PR freelancer. in 1998, i got employed at BMG Records (Pilipinas), Inc. adding marketing on to my professional experience. much later, after a fruitful three and a half years working with the known and sought-after artists like The Eraserheads, Lea Salonga, Ariel Rivera, Rivermaya, The CompanY, and more, a brief stint (like less than a year) with a multinational insurance company that really put me in a different world from what i’m used to (corporatey stiff, you know?), i was with PETA.

PETA, the theater company, not the animal rights group. 😀

yep, all those years, i got so good at business writing, technical writing, profiles, articles. i dabbled a bit in poetry and short stories but well, those are more wildmind offsprings than anything.

and so one time in early 2003, bff Queng (recognized by avid Tagalog romance novel enthusiasts as Carla Giopaolo for MSV and Angel Bautista of PHR), in our search for something lucrative but not too demanding, suggested we go into novel writing.

we’re both writers, sabi niya, why don’t we try this? how difficult can it be?

she had a point there. so i said, okay. at any rate, i had two bookshelves full of Mills & Boon romances. those represented hundreds of plot ideas we could learn from and adapt in Philippine setting . . .

our first move, though, was to buy plenty of Tagalog romance books to see the format, get a feel of the tone, see the guidelines for submitting manuscripts . . . i don’t remember anymore whose book it was. neither can i recall the story. what i remember was my reaction after reading:

magaling pa ako diyan sumulat eh. [insert extremely smug smile here]

so we began writing. it was difficult as at the time as i didn’t have a laptop of my own and just had to wait my turn to use the PC (both at home and at work, err… when we’re not busy). i had a small notebook where i would write down thoughts, conversation pieces, possible scenes, not necessarily in chronological order but something for me to put together later on. after a few months of working, nabuo ang unang nobela ko na pinalad ma-approve sa unang subok.

it’s been years since that first try. i went through countless rejections, revisions, tears, depression. almost lost faith that i actually had talent. pero eto, nagsusulat pa din ako. i overcame the difficulties and the heartache of a wannabe novelist. nagbunga ng maganda ang paulit-ulit na rejection dahil since i restarted my career, wala nang na-reject sa MS ko. i have several published books (and counting) na thankfully ay kinagigiliwan naman ng mga nakakabasa. have countless plots piling up in my file folders waiting for attention. and now…

i.

am a romance writer.

you may want to know more, i have some more ramblings here. my complete resume can be viewed here.